In your hood: Maria Tutaia

In Your Hood is a series that explores the neighbourhoods of prominent and up and coming Kiwi talent. What ’hood they rep, their memories of where they came from and how their surroundings have influenced them to get to where they are now.

In the first of the series, we talk to Silver Fern Maria Tutaia. She was born in Tokoroa, “good old Toke-town”, on the border of Waikato, and her family was brought up in Samoa - but she calls West Auckland home. “I’m a Westie, hard”.  

If you were going to give someone a tour of your hood, and show them the places that are meaningful to you, where would you take them?

I'd definitely take them to Taylor Street Dairy in Blockhouse Bay in West Auckland. I spent a lot of my time there. They don’t have spacies there anymore, but they used to have two Street Fighter and Tekken spacies outside the dairy. I’d spend probably about $3 or $4 before and after school, which is a lot of money for me, especially in my family. Also, the Burger King up the road in New Lynn, I spent a lot of my time up there with my friends, I’m not condoning wagging school, but I must admit I was there quite a bit, before school, after school, always having a feed. Definitely Burger King and Taylor Street dairy.

I bet you everyone will talk about their love for their local dairy, aye? There is a real love for dairies here.

And some dairies just have specific lollies that you just can’t get at other places. Which is pretty sad, because the Taylor Street Dairy now, they don't have all the lollies that I grew up eating, it used to be renowned for it.

That's how I rate dairies too, it's the lolly selection man, if they have one of those big pick'n'mix sections. What would be your choice of lollies? Did you do those ones where'd you be like, I'll have 20 cents of these, and 20 cents of those...

Yeah man, when Mum and Dad would give us $2 for lunch, you could buy so much with $2 back in those days, a pie and hot chips or a lasagne and sausage roll or something. But yeah, always pick’n’mix, so 20 cents of coke bottles, twirly wurlys, the teeth, candy canes, all that sort of stuff, the gummy bears and milkshake bottles.

I think kids are missing out on that these days, a quality lolly selection, and spacies ­ you don’t see them that much anymore.

And when you’d see a spacie machine, honestly, you treasure it like it’s gold. You spend all your pay’s worth on those spacies. You make a lot of memories, and you meet a lot of friends, well I have, just bumming around Taylor Street Dairy, having competitions with everyone. It’s a great way to meet friends and to make a lot of great memories.

How do you think where you come from has shaped you, and perhaps how has it influenced what you became later on in life?

I guess the neighbourhood that I was brought up in, we were, I guess we were a typical Island family that didn’t have a lot. That typical struggle street story, we all went through that. I know that my parents are very Samoan, traditional parents that tried to bring us up the way that they were brought up. There is no right or wrong way to bring up your children, but my parents did instil that in us.

In terms of the neighbourhood that we were brought up in, I was brought up with a lot of Islanders, Tongans, Niueans, Rarotongans, on our street that we were all very close to and we were all going through the same struggles.

So we were always helping each other out, we’d make lunches for each other, or they’d come over and have a feed and vice versa. And I think that’s really important. With kids these days, I know that there’s a lot of things that they’re influenced by with the internet, and what people perceive or want themselves to look like, and be like, in terms of being rich and famous and all that sort of stuff. In terms of the neighbourhood that I was brought up in, we didn’t have that.

I’m very grateful and lucky that we all helped each other along the way, to mould us into the way that I am. I’m not trying to be cocky or anything but I’m very proud to be brought up the way that I am, I’m very proud to be Samoan, I'm very proud that we didn't have a lot as kids but now I can reap the rewards and work really hard for my parents, the way they did for us as kids.

Was there a place in your neighbourhood that you'd go to practice your netball?

Yeah, at Chaucer Primary school, in Blockhouse Bay, which is right next to the dairy where I pretty much lived at. I’d practice all my shooting there. All my friends played netball because it was fun, and every little girl was playing in school, I’d definitely say Chaucer Primary school netball courts, we were always there, every morning tea and lunch.

Are there any other memories that you think about now as perhaps shaping what you would later become?

Probably just the obvious, hard yard training. There was this one lady, Te Aroha Keenan, who was my school dean at Mt Albert Grammar at my last year at school. She was my New Zealand under 21 coach at the time as well. She would pick me up first thing in the morning at 6am, and she’d take me to Cornwall Park. I was about 14, or 15-years-old. She'd take me on very vigorous training sessions; whilst all of my other friends were out partying and having a social life and being a teenager, I was always either at Cornwall Park or at some netball court trying to become what I’d always dreamed of being a Silver Fern.

Yeah, I don't suppose you become a Silver Fern just by chance.

Haha, no. Just like anything in life you strive to be what you want to be, and the only way to do it in life and reap the rewards is by working extremely hard with determination and commitment and the passion that you have. It’s definitely something that's been instilled from my parents, through to me and my siblings, but obviously, nothing comes easy in life.

This content is brought to you with funding assistance from New Zealand On Air.